RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS

1876 to 1996

The purpose of the residential schools was to

educate and civilize or westernize the First Nation
people in order that they adopt a more European
lifestyle.
By Andrea Davidson

Understanding the education
of Canada’s Aboriginal
population requires us to step
back for a moment and
consider one of the historical
forces that has shaped the lives
of Aboriginal people all across
Canada since colonization. In
1876, the federal government
passed the Indian Act, making
it law that Aboriginal children
across the country be removed
from their family homes and
placed in residential schools.
In 1920, compulsory
attendance led to the RCMP
forcibly removing children as
young as 5 years old from their
1
homes and placing them in for sale to help fund the
schools that were church run, school. Many children were
government funded, and purposely exposed to TB
operated on the principle of (tuberculosis); they were
assimilation and “getting rid ofseparated from their siblings;
the Indian problem”. they were beaten for speaking
their traditional language; they
In many instances, but not all, were denied human contact
these children were treated and comfort. The government
harshly, often experiencing and church were often
physical, emotional, and successful in completely
sexual abuse at the hands of alienating and depriving
those charged to care for them. children from tens of
They were taught that their thousands of years of their
families were “backward” and own history and traditional
“savage”. Some schools knowledge. These residential
housed children year-round, schools existed into the ‘70s
forcing them to produce goods and ‘80s, with the last one
 closing in 1996. educational institutions.
Children of Aboriginal Castellano, Marlene Brant.
On June 11, 2008, an descent are often (2000). p. 34. Updating
historical moment occurred marginalized in the Aboriginal traditions of
when Prime Minister Harper curriculum and subjected to knowledge. In George Dei,
issued an apology on behalf racism that stems from Budd Hall, & Dorothy
of the federal government to ignorance. For all of our Rosenberg (Eds.),
those families that endured students, incorporating Indigenous knowledges in
the horrors of residential Indigenous knowledge and global contexts: Multiple
schooling. He stated that the an unbiased history into the readings of our world (pp.
objectives of the residential curriculum will lead to an 21-36). Toronto: University
school “were based on the awareness, appreciation, and of Toronto Press.
assumption that Aboriginal respect for a people that have
cultures and spiritual beliefs demonstrated a resilience
were inferior and unequal. and a connection to their past
Indeed, some sought, as it that has stood firm in the
was infamously said `to kill face of incredible social and
the Indian in the child.’ political injustice. For our
Today, we recognize that this Aboriginal students, this
policy of assimilation was inclusion of culture will
wrong, has caused great foster a positive self-
harm, and has no place in our awareness, a strong sense of
country.” pride, and a grounding of
roots that were viciously
Most of the children in our unearthed at one time. “The
schools today are the knowledge that will support
grandchildren of residential their survival in the future
school survivors. Because of will not be an artefact from
the varied experiences of the the past. It will be a living
parents and grandparents of fire, rekindled from
our Aboriginal students, surviving embers and fuelled
there sometimes exists a with the materials of the
justified lack of trust in twenty-first century.”